All Tatted Up :-)

Yes, you read it right........I got my first tattoo.

Actually to be completely honest, I got my first four tattoos.

No, it isn't a butterfly, or my hubby's initials or my children's names.  It is four small freckle sized dots.

A part of preparation for radiation is to get small tattoos so that each day you are lined up in the exact same position on the machine.

I'm sure other people have much more exciting stories of their first tattoos-freshman year in college, crazy night in Vegas, with a bunch of friends or planned and debated for months and months.  I definitely didn't think that my first tattoo would be given by the radiation nurse at Kaiser, but again it's part of the process.

A start to the last unknown part of the process......radiation.

5 weeks of daily treatment.  As my doctor put it, "Your lungs can take six weeks of radiation so we will stop you at 5".  It will be a 5 minute treatment where radiation will enter my body in three different passes.

The possible side effects are mostly topical (burned skin, blisters, tightening of skin) and fatigue.

I will treat my skin daily with aloe and hydrocortisone and hope that my skin that typically doesn't sunburn will lend itself well to this process.  I have to use mild soap, natural deodorant, and shave sparingly (so if I smell it's not my fault :-).

I took solace in the fact that I start treatment April 30 and end June 1st.  It makes it seem nicer to wrap radiation up in the month of May.  I will be able to start summer break on the home stretch of breast cancer treatment-just one last chemo drug once every three weeks until October.